Weekend BlogApril 21, 2007
All-Time Greats
By The Baseball Analysts Staff

  • Is Alex Rodriguez any good? After last night's game against the Red Sox, it looks as if I should bump up the over/under on his home run total to 52. Man oh man. 12 HR in 15 games. Let's see now, that projects to 130 dingers for a full year. I don't think he will slug 100 but how 'bout 62?

    ARod is in pretty good company when it comes to Yankees home run hitters. Let's take a look at the top 10 single-season HR leaders for the Bronx Bombers:

                                 YEAR       HR     
1   Roger Maris              1961       61   
2   Babe Ruth                1927       60   
3   Babe Ruth                1921       59   
T4  Mickey Mantle            1961       54   
T4  Babe Ruth                1928       54   
T4  Babe Ruth                1920       54   
7   Mickey Mantle            1956       52   
T8  Lou Gehrig               1936       49   
T8  Lou Gehrig               1934       49   
T8  Babe Ruth                1930       49

    Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Lou Gehrig. ARod's name would fit in there just fine. In fact, he happens to sit in 11th place now (with 48 in his MVP season in 2005). How about Joe DiMaggio, you ask? Tied for 14th with 46 in 1937, his second year in the majors. Take a second look at that list and you'll notice that Rodriguez is already number one among all right-handed batters. After DiMaggio, you have to go all the way down to 28th to find the next RHB (Alfonso Soriano, 2002, and the Yankee Clipper, 1948, with 39).

    In the meantime, Rodriguez passed Stan Musial and Willie Stargell for 25th on the all-time home run list with 476. He is a shoo-in to become the youngest player to hit 500 (beating out Jimmie Foxx) and could rank among the top 20 before the year is out.

    For those of you who get worked up about Barry Bonds passing Hank Aaron, relax. Alex Rodriguez is going to pass them both by the time he hangs 'em up.

    - Rich Lederer, 4/21/07, 8:15 a.m. PST

  • Speaking of all-time greats, which spot in the batting order did Jackie Robinson hit more often than any other? Would you believe fourth?

    According to Dave Smith, the creator of Retrosheet, Robinson had more at-bats hitting cleanup than all of the other positions in the batting order combined. Smith created the following table, which details Jackie's batting performance by each spot in the lineup.

    Batting
Position   AB    R    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI  HP   BB   SO  SF   AVG   OBP   SLG
First      80   15   25    6   1   1   14   0   10    7   0  .313  .389  .450
Second    999  205  288   55  12  22  110  18  120   66   0  .288  .375  .433
Third     645  130  207   32   4  20   90  12  110   41   0  .321  .429  .476
Fourth   2483  496  818  157  32  79  439  35  382  139   2  .329  .426  .514
Fifth     112   18   31    5   0   1   12   2   18    9   0  .277  .386  .348
Sixth     290   47   84   12   5   7   45   3   58   12   5  .290  .407  .438
Seventh   191   26   48    3   0   6   17   2   34   10   1  .251  .368  .361
Eighth     49    7   12    1   0   1    5   0    6    2   1  .245  .321  .327
Ninth      28    3    5    2   0   0    2   0    4    4   0  .179  .281  .250

    Despite never accumulating 20 home runs in a season, Robinson was a highly productive hitter in the four hole. He could do it all. Hit for a high average with decent power, walk, and run the bases as well as anyone from his era.

    Interestingly, Jackie scored 13% more runs than he drove in while batting fourth. I wonder if anyone else has ever had such a ratio of R/RBI from the cleanup spot?

    - Rich Lederer, 4/21/07, 4:30 p.m. PST

    • Comments

    You mean A-Rod is a good hitter? But I thought that he was so expendable! (right Yankee "fans"?)

    Posted by: Pizza Cutter at April 21, 2007 9:02 PM

    You can sure tell that Robinson played in a different era.
    79 long balls in almost 2500 AB's would not be very impressive today.
    Dead ball, higher mound, it also makes Aaron, Mays and other stars from that era a little more impressive.

    Posted by: Diamondoug at April 22, 2007 8:02 PM

    He batted ninth 28 times? This is pre-DH so does this mean he started the game batting ninth or that he came in as a pinch-hitter? Upon more reflection, it must be as a PH as there is no way he would have batted behind a pitcher in the starting lineup that many times.

    Posted by: Mahantles at April 23, 2007 4:11 PM

    Pinch hit, pinch run, and double switches all could account for Robinson's 28 AB in the ninth slot.

    Posted by: Rich Lederer at April 23, 2007 4:13 PM

    No matter how well he plays, I wonder if it's always going to be a question of "what have you done for me lately" when it comes to Yankees fans.

    Posted by: Ron Kaplan at April 24, 2007 1:34 PM

    A-Rod will be an all-time great for sure and if he stays healthy, will shatter a lot of records including home runs. But he will never and nor will anyone else surpass Ruth.

    Why? Several reasons.
    1. Ruth started his career pitching. The Red Sox won 2 World Series 1916 and 18 behind Ruth's pitching. He was the best left-handed pitcher in the game at the time.
    2. Ruth played less games due to a shorter season.
    3. Ruth played in the dead ball era.
    4. Ruth didn't have steroids, HGH or vitamins even
    5. Ruth didn't have personal trainers, advanced medicine and Cbex machines.
    6. Ruth ate, drank, partied and smoked like a maniac and still outslugged everyone.

    Ruth's other records: Ruth devoured the most hot dogs, drank the most beers and bedded the most women. And sometimes during games he was playing in.

    The Babe was the first to reach 30 homers, 40, 50, and 60. And no one will ever break his lifetime slugging avg of .690. Ruth also owns five of the 10 highest season slugging averages ever.

    Posted by: CBL at May 3, 2007 6:21 AM